Today
Mission Carmel has been designated a National Historic Landmark by the National Park Service. It is also an active parish church of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Monterey. Masses are held at 7 a.m., noon and 5:30 p.m. Monday-Friday, Saturday at 8:30 a.m. and 5:30 p.m., and Sunday at 7:30 a.m., 9:30 a.m., 11 a.m., 12:30 p.m., and 5:30 p.m.
In addition to its activity as a place of worship, Mission Carmel also hosts concerts, art exhibits, lectures and numerous other community events. In 1986, Monsignor Eamon MacMahon, then pastor of Carmel Mission, acquired a magnificent Casavant organ complete with horizontal trumpets for the basilica. Its hand-painted casework is decorated with elaborate carvings and statuary reflecting the Spanish decorative style seen on the main altar.
Carmel also serves as a museum, preserving its own history and the history of the area. There are four specific museum galleries: the Harry Downie Museum, describing restoration efforts; the Munras Family Heritage Museum, describing the history of one of the most important area families; the Jo Mora Chapel Gallery, hosting a cenotaph sculpted by Jo Mora as well as rotating art exhibits; and the Convento Museum, which holds the cell Serra lived and died in, as well as interpretive exhibits.
The mission grounds are also the location of the Junipero Serra School, a private Catholic school for kindergartners through 8th grade. At one end of the museum is a special chapel room containing some of the vestments used by Serra.
Read more about this topic: Mission San Carlos Borromeo De Carmelo
Famous quotes containing the word today:
“Would that even today you knew the things that make for peace!”
—Bible: New Testament, Luke 19:41.
“The late Président de Montesquieu told me that he knew how to be blind—he had been so for such a long time—but I swear that I do not know how to be deaf: I cannot get used to it, and I am as humiliated and distressed by it today as I was during the first week. No philosophy in the world can palliate deafness.”
—Philip Dormer Stanhope, 4th Earl Chesterfield (1694–1773)
“At times it seems that the media have become the mainstream culture in children’s lives. Parents have become the alternative. Americans once expected parents to raise their children in accordance with the dominant cultural messages. Today they are expected to raise their children in opposition to it.”
—Ellen Goodman (20th century)